28. The golden age loses its sheen

Was that golden age, following the restoration of the monarchy in England, really that golden?

This episode looks at how it lost its sheen, particularly when the champion fabricator or fake news and false denunciations, Titus Oates, came along and plunged the country into the hysteria of the Popish Plot. That was like so many other witch hunts, even the McCarthy anti-Communist hunt in the 1950s. And, like most conspiracy theories, based on pure fiction. Or, rather, impure fiction.

Illustration: Titus Oates, engraving after and unknown artist
National Portrait Gallery D16604

Music: Bach Partita #2c by J Bu licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License